Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by AtheistTech on March 30, 2012 at 6:11pm

Thanks so much for finding this and sharing it with us.

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on March 31, 2012 at 4:08am

This is an incredible story! Almost unbelievable. I look forward to seeing how his new skin reacts to his aging process.  

Permalink Reply by Thomas Ledbetter on March 31, 2012 at 8:39am

I caught that the fellow featured only had 2nd degree burns ... painful, but the skin is still there, and will naturally heal itself within a few weeks with no scarring.  With 3rd degree burns, the skin is -gone-.  Doing a bit of research, this device was first announced Feb 2011, and Gerlach said "At present we can only treat severe second-degree burns, but we are working on addressing third-degree burns, as well”.  Unfortunately (Here comes the science!) a Google search finds no published clinical studies or peer reviewed papers on this, leading to speculation that it is a hoax http://clinicalposters.com/news/2011/0204-skin-cell-gun.html  which itself is hard to believe since this came from the very respected National Geographic site.  So at present, I'd consider it a promising development but not much more.  

Permalink Reply by AtheistTech on March 31, 2012 at 9:10am

After I read Thomas' post. I decided to check it out myself. In the link that Thomas provided, I read some of it, then I followed a couple of links at the bottom sited as sources. Then I went to Snopes.com. Then I did my own search. Snopes had nothing. All the other places had different parts of the same text. No attempt to hide the plagiarism. So, I can't tell if it is a complete hoax or an exaggeration.  It was nice to think they did it for a while, but I feel betrayed. How about you?

Permalink Reply by Nontheist Central on March 31, 2012 at 10:54am

Yeah.  Feeling betrayed here too.  I'm going to look into more, though.  To think that National Geographic just straight lied is unthinkable.  If we can't trust them...

Permalink Reply by AtheistTech on March 31, 2012 at 9:17am

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/spray-on-skin-gun_n_817776...

Permalink Reply by Nontheist Central on March 31, 2012 at 10:53am

I'll concede that the lack of clinical trials makes it a bit suspect, however in the link Thomas posted seems to be a bit suspect as well.  The fact that part of the "evidence" is that the guy healed doesn't look real in the video.  Personally, I thought the close-up of the guys shoulder looked pretty real.  It looked like there was at least some skin discoloration indicating a burn.  Not saying that this proves that it's not a hoax, but I believe National Geographic before I'd believe someone posting something on the internet that I never heard of nor know their credentials.

The lack of before photos is definitely strange though.  Maybe NG was fooled themselves when they made the video?  It seems logical to me that they should be able to do this.  I mean, they DO grow human skin now for things like this.  It's going to have to stay in the suspect bin now, though, which is disappointing. :(